Mission

The Stop Child Labour campaign is a joint lobby, education and awareness raising campaign that seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision of full time formal education.

Stop Child Labour Campaign Principles

1: Child labour is the denial of a child’s right to education
The focus of attention is to actively integrate all ‘out of school’ children into formal education systems. Children have the right to education at least until the age they are allowed to work (which is 15, while developing countries can choose 14). In addition, all barriers (for example: financial barriers) to local schools should be removed, by providing financial and infrastructural support.

2: All child labour is unacceptable
The Stop Child Labour campaign believes that distinctions between different forms of child labour, while helping to cast a spotlight on the worst abuses, tend to be too narrow in their focus and offer only partial solutions. Efforts to eliminate child labour should focus on all its forms, preferably aiming at all children in a certain community.

3: It is the duty of all Governments, International Organisations and Corporate Bodies to ensure that they do not perpetuate child labour
All governments have a duty to ensure that they do not permit or allow child labour to exist within their state.

As part of their corporate social responsibility, all transnational and other business enterprises using child labour should create and implement a plan to remove children from their workforce (including their supply-chain) and enrol them in full time education.

4: Core Labour standards must be respected and enforced to effectively eliminate child labour
Child labour undermines the opportunities for adult employment and decent wages. Experience has shown that child labour is highly unlikely to exist when a free trade union is present and where core labour standards are respected.